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Different effort: Plastic vs Feather

Hi to all Badminton Fans,

today I played the first time with Yonex Mavis 350 slowspeed (blue) plastic shuttlecocks. I was shocked because it was so difficult to get the shuttle from my own backcourt to the opponents backcourt. Often the shuttle was so short that my opponent gets an easy smash.
The second thing I noticed is that a ball which normally would go out end up in the field. It looks like the shuttle stops or loose so much speed at the end.
But what really drives me crazy was that I just failed the shuttle on the jumpsmashs so often. I was nearly always to early in the air und hit the shuttle on the way downwards or stroke right beside it.

Is this normal or did I just fancy this?

Usually I play with feather shuttlecocks like the RSL Tourney No.1.

Best Regards,
Chris

PS: This is my first English-speaking forum so please correct me if you find spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Thanks!

Yes, this is quite the oddity. The 350 blues are actually moderate speed while green is slow and red is fast. You are the first person I know to say that you have more trouble with plastic than feather. With plastic it tends to be very fast and keeps that speed all the way through while feather slows down. I'm going to question the speed of your rsl tourneys, you might be playing with a higher speed than what is recommended for your area.

If you have to play with plastics, play with Mavis 300's. They actually feel pretty good~ I have 2 sets of rackets with one set for plastic and the other for feather. You'd have to be pretty tough to use the same string settings for both without it messing up your game. Just for reference, I use one pound less for feather

If you have to play with plastics, play with Mavis 300's. They actually feel pretty good~ I have 2 sets of rackets with one set for plastic and the other for feather. You'd have to be pretty tough to use the same string settings for both without it messing up your game. Just for reference, I use one pound less for feather

i have 2 sets of rackets like you too... but 1-2lbs less for plastic than feathers... which is how most others that i know have set up

If you have to play with plastics, play with Mavis 300's. They actually feel pretty good~ I have 2 sets of rackets with one set for plastic and the other for feather. You'd have to be pretty tough to use the same string settings for both without it messing up your game. Just for reference, I use one pound less for feather

I play the same racket (MX80 @ 11KG) for both feathers and plastic. The only real difficulty is switching between the two, but thats gone after a propper warmup.

i have 2 sets of rackets like you too... but 1-2lbs less for plastic than feathers... which is how most others that i know have set up

strange that you have it the opposite

if you do a search you'll find out what i mean

opps late reply! But yeah, I use much higher tensions than normal people do to reduce my power, but gain accuracy! Because plastics fly faster, I need to further reduce the speed by going higher and it works for me

i never thought about switching rackets, i just thought of adjusting the speed of my racket. interesting concept. now i'm really thinking about having one set of rackets for plastic shuttles and one set for feather.

when I started playing badminton, the juniors only played with the Yonex Mavis 350 blue plastic shuttlecocks. Now playing with feather shuttlecocks for several years. And YES - the plastic shuttlecocks are just aweful
I think the reason why you have so much problem with hitting the shuttlecock correctly, is the difference of the flight curve of feather- and plastic shuttlecocks. You'll need a different timing for jump smashes with a plastic shuttlecock.
But I can't confirm that plastic shuttlecocks going out where feather shuttlecocks would be going.
I'm happy with feather shuttlecocks and will never go back to plastic